NOB DYLAN AND HIS NOBSOLETESPostively 12 Stiff Dylans!virus335 (2005) CD - $12.00iTunesemusic
Interpreting Bob Dylan songs for a punk rock audience is not for the faint of heart... Luckily Rev. Norb (of Boris the Sprinkler, Suburban Mutilation, and ex-MRR columnist) is more than up to the challenge. This eccentric punk rock oddity has crafted an album that on its face makes no sense, re-imagining early Dylan songs into flat-out garage-rocking punk, but the disc itself makes all those qualms immaterial.

You won't find "The Times they are a Changin'", "Like a Rolling Stone" or any of the standard "greatest hits" type of numbers here. Who knew that Dylan was responsible for songs with titles like "Tombstone Blues" or "Desolation Twist?" Rev. Norb obviously did, and we are all the better for it. The album is an obnoxious, snotty, energetic, rip-ride of rock and roll bliss, courtesy of the Rev. and his co-conspirators, the Obsoletes, re-christened the Nobsoletes here.

For fans of Dylan in the punk scene (all 12 of them) this album will be a great send-up of some unsung gems from Dylan's back-catalog. For the rest of us, the album is just a great reminder of why punk rock is fun, energizing, and eccentric. This isn't a lampoon or piss-take of Dylan, nor is it a groveling canonization, just a great band playing great rock songs, that happen to have been written by him, and is a killer record in it's own right. It's a win-win situation for everyone!

"This is absolutely the very best Dylan album I own. Period! And, Bob's nowhere to be found on it. This is exactly the kind of album one would expect from a label like Alternative Tentacles. The cd mainly concentrates on Dylan's 1965 work. I 100% agree with the liner notes that this was the year of Dylan's best work. I know that a lot of folks wouldn't agree but they're not writing this. There are a couple of songs that are not from 1965. Namely, "Absolutely Sweet Marie" and "Motorpsycho Nitemare", but both work well in the scheme of things. Jason And The Nashville Scorchers did an excellent version of "Absolutely Sweet Marie" back in their early days but I digress. Anyway, if you're a huge Dylan fan you probably won't dig this and if you're not a Dylan fan you'll probably be one after hearing this."